Mandy: Great blog!
Mark: Thanks to all the contributors on this blog. When I want to get information on the events that really matter, I come here.
Penny: I'm glad I found your blog (from a comment on Think Progress), it's comprehensive and very insightful.
Eric: Nice site....I enjoyed it and will be back.
nora kelly: I enjoy your site. Keep it up! I particularly like your insights on Latin America.
Alison: Loquacious as ever with a touch of elegance -- & right on target as usual!

And, yes, I DO take it personally

Saturday, May 30, 2009

In case my one or two regular readers haven't already figured it out

i've pretty much had it... i've been blogging over four years, something which has required a daily commitment and a constant, enervating awareness of all the ghastly stuff that goes on in the world... ever the optimist, i had some peculiar notion that electing a candidate like barack obama might possibly make blogging a more pleasant experience... ah, well... now that i'm back in the u.s. after over five months outside the country, i'm just not sure i want to keep going with this, hence the unusual phenomenon of four days between posts... anywayz, i'm going to think things over... stay tuned, but don't hold your breath...

Monday, May 25, 2009

On Memorial Day, listen to Abdul Salaam Zaeef speak about Bagram and Guantánamo

a friend of mine in afghanistan, the country director for the institute for war and peace reporting, jean mackenzie, interviewed mullah abdul salaam zaeef in kabul earlier this year in her additional capacity as a reporter for the global post... i had posted on it back in march here... now i see that cnn picked up on his story...

As one of the right-hand men to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef was one of the first Taliban leaders arrested when the United States began military operations in Afghanistan.Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who was Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, says U.S. war efforts are "failing."

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who was Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, says U.S. war efforts are "failing."

As a detainee, he was held both at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base and at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba -- spending more than three years in Guantanamo before he was released in 2006.

[...]

"I didn't see a worse situation in my life than Bagram," recalled Zaeef. "They were beating me, they put me in the snow, in the cold, until I was unconscious."

[...]

In Guantanamo, Zaeef recalled, "there was no rule, no regulation for [treatment of] the detainees."

[...]

"Anyone in the world, to be deprived of any kind of human rights, any kind of justice -- he becomes angry, so he will try to get revenge," he said. While detained, he said, detainees sometimes lose everything -- homes, property, money -- and "they have nothing after that."advertisement

While he claims to no longer be a Taliban member, he said he supports the insurgents and believes the United States will never be victorious in Afghanistan. "There is no choice" for the Taliban except to fight, he said. "There is no other way for them."

i'm glad to see his story getting some attention from the traditional media... people need to know the ugliness that's going on in our names, particularly as we observe our memorial day...